SONY LEGACY GRATEFUL FOR WEIR

Photo credit: Gary Gershoff

“We’re sorry, Bob,” Sony Music Legacy Recordings President Adam Block told Bob Weir in welcoming him to the label, “but we can’t find nine tie-dye T-shirts on short notice. This is New York.”

Weir accepted Block’s apology and performed a handful of songs that will appear on his Columbia/Legacy/ROAR album Blue Mountain, being released 9/30. The shindig, held at the McKittrick Hotel, included an interview with Weir and producer/guitarist Josh Kaufman moderated by CBS’ Anthony Mason.

Kaufman, songwriter Josh Ritter and The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner suggested to Weir several years ago that they explore cowboy songs, the sort he sang early on in the Grateful Dead. They wrote and recorded in batches until they realized, Weir said, “if we toss three, four, six of the tunes, we’d have an album. If we keep going, we’ll never know what to do with it all.”

The management team from Bernie Cahill’s ROAR were on hand at the 8/4 event to tell Legacy executives how in the old days they’d hand out LSD rather than provide beer and wine. Pictured from left, ROARS’ Kristina “Red” Tanner and Matt Maher, Sony Music Commercial Music Group President Richard Story, Block, Weir, Kraig Fox, ROAR’S Liz Norris and Cahill and Matt Busch.